Behind the Illusion
by fight4love
Summary: Three bodies found in Miami prompt the BAU to go and investigate. However, not all is what it seems and soon they discover something larger is at work.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds**

I sat there reading over the document while listening to Agent Aaron Hotchner present the information of our current case. "So far there are three victims, all male and in their mid, to late twenties," Hotch stated looking towards each member of the group.

"They were all abducted from random areas, but each was dumped near some body of water," Agent Derek Morgan added in.

"In each instance the victims were taken in the more central areas of Miami, and were dumped sporadically," I mentioned.

"Each seemed to have been tortured, and then strangled," Agent David Rossi mentioned looking up from the report in front of him.

"And the file says another disappeared yesterday" Agent Emily Prentiss remarked looking up briefly from the file.

"All the more reason to hurry." Hotch said. "Wheels up in twenty," he added before walking out of the room, followed closely by his colleagues.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

"This is Lucy reporting from Sunshine Beach, as you can see from behind me there are numerous officers at the scene where the third body was discovered early this morning," the pretty brunette reporter announced. "This discovery marks the third person killed in the past month, with the last one being found about a week ago," she continued, trying to convey some emotion.

Watching the news, a man smiled and clapped slowly. "This is going exactly as planned, with three bodies they know that they have a serial killer at loose," he said to himself. "The special team from the FBI will have to come and investigate the matter," he added smiling at the idea. Slowly the man got up after the news report and walked over to the table on the other side of the room.

On the table lay three jars, which the man just stared at, admiring his work. The first jar contained a heart, the second contained a liver, and the last held a pair of eyes. The organs served as a reminder and memories of his kills.

Turning around the man headed out of the room and to the backyard, once outside the man walked towards the small house that used to be used as a guesthouse many years ago. Inside, he walked towards the only source of light and found that the young man tied to the table was awake.

Walking over, the man removed the gag around the other man's mouth.

"You bastard! Where am I and who the fuck are you?" the younger man yelled.

"None of that concerns you, for you are simply a pawn, a toy, bait or whatever you want to call yourself now," the older man replied.

"What are you going to do to me?" The young man replied sounding a little more concerned then before.

"Like I said you are simply serving a purpose," the older man replied, putting the gag back on and grabbing a knife from the small table off to the side.

Without any hesitation the older man held the knife over the man and waiting for the younger man's realization he cleanly cut off the thumb watching his captor's eyes widen in pain and fear as the gag muffled his screams.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds**

**I want to give a thank you to CatCrimMindsFan-CMCrazies and xxbooradleyxx for reviewing :D**

After the pilot announced that they were at a stable altitude the members of the BAU team headed over to the center of the plane and sat in a sort of semi-circle waiting for Hotch to speak.

"The first victim's name was Harry Bartlet, he disappeared a month ago after going to the gym and his body was found five days later in a fountain outside a museum" Hotch stated looking down at the folder in his hands. "The second victim, Adam Ford was last seen at a Miami Mall two weeks ago and his body was found three days later near the swamps. The last victim, John Dest disappeared five days ago after being seen at a soup kitchen and was found this morning at Sunshine Beach," he added.

"Judging from the file, the unsub seems to be escalating, he could dump Jason in the next few days" Reid mentioned.

"Considering the fact that Jason Mah was just abducted last night," Prentiss said, "especially since Jason was most likely kidnapped while the unsub was still holding John" she added.

"What I find interesting is that besides the fact that these were young men, they had no connections to each other or had any similarities" Morgan pointed out.

"It says here that Harry was only 21 years old and a recent graduate who lived alone in an apartment. Adam had a job at a grocery store and a girlfriend which they shared a house together. John was a low level drug dealer and Jason worked at a law firm." JJ confirmed as she read the file.

"So our unsub has access to a vehicle based on the distance between each abduction and disposal sights and he probably doesn't have a job" Rossi mentioned.

"Also, most of these dumpsites are in very public places, even the swamp was an area well known to tourists" Reid mentioned.

"Which means he takes his time in thinking where he wants the bodies dumped and he is confident that he won't get caught" Morgan mentioned, considering the facts that were presented.

"When we land, Morgan and Prentiss go check out the latest crime scene, Rossi and Reid I want you to talk to Jason's colleagues from the law firm and JJ and I will head to the station." Hotch stated looking around the plane.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

_Prentiss_

Stepping out of the plane we each went our separate ways. Sunshine Beach was not far from the landing strip and we were there in just under half an hour. Stepping out the beach didn't look any different from the many that lined Miami. You had the clear, crystal blue ocean water, people scattered around all trying to work on their tan and children laughing and running around without a single care in the world.

"You coming Emily?" Morgan called, interrupting my thoughts.

Looking up I realized he was already a few paces ahead of me, with one last look around I walked quickly over to where he was waiting for me.

"Agent Prentiss and this is Agent Morgan" I said when we approached the yellow tape, marking off the crime scene.

"I was told you were coming, Officer Finley" he replied, lifting up the tape to allow us through.

"What can you tell us?" Morgan asked.

"The victims name is John Dest, he was found yesterday morning around 4:00 am by that couple over there," the officer said, looking in the direction of the couple.

"I'll go talk to them" I said to Derek and walked over to the young couple a few feet away.

"Agent Emily Prentiss" I said extending my hand.

"Kenny and Beatrice Malcolm" the man said returning the handshake.

"I've just got a few questions to ask you if that's alright?" I asked.

"Yes, sure, no problem" the women answered this time.

"So what were you guys doing out that early?" I questioned.

The women blushed and looked away.

"Well…." Her husband started, "we wanted to try out skinny dipping," he added.

"Ok, did you guys see who dumped the body or anything suspicious?" I asked, mentally wishing I brought a portable fan.

"Nothing, when we drove here there were no other cars parked in the area," John said.

"It was only when we started walking down towards the water that we saw…" Beatrice added unable to finish the sentence.

"Thank you for your cooperation" I said shaking hands with them and walked back to Morgan.

"What did the couple say?" Morgan asked as we headed back towards the SUV.

"They didn't see anything," I answered, "what did the officer say?" I asked as we got back into the SUV.

"Just that the guy had a few run in's with the cops and has a rap sheet that includes selling and possession of drugs" Derek responded driving off towards the station.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

_Reid_

Getting out of the SUV we headed towards the large building in front of us.

"Good afternoon, what can I help you with today?" Asked the cheerful secretary.

"FBI" Rossi said holding out his badge and I quickly pulled out mine. "We're here to see William Test," he added putting his badge away.

"Ok, sixth floor and once upstairs his office is on the door to the left," the women mentioned looking towards the elevators.

"Thank you" I said and we walked towards the elevator and up to the sixth floor.

Once upstairs we walked left until we came to a door that said the man's name and knocked.

"Come in," said a voice that carried both the power and authority that came with being a lawyer.

"FBI, I'm Agent Rossi and this is Doctor Reid," he said, and once again we held up our badges.

The man stood up from behind his desk, "William Test, please have a seat," he said gesturing to the front of his desk.

Once we were all sitting down Rossi said, "what was your relationship with Jason?"

"He's my partner at this firm" the man replied.

"He hasn't been missing for 48 hours, what made you call the police so soon?" I asked.

"You have to understand, Jason is a man of routine. For the last three years that we've worked together all he's cared about is this job. He always leaves later than everyone else and is here earlier too," William answered.

"Could you be more specific, what time did he leave yesterday?" Rossi asked.

"Yesterday he probably left close to 11:00 pm, since we are in the middle of a big case" the lawyer responded.

"And what time was he supposed to come in today?" I asked.

"Around 7:00 am, I knew once I got into work at 9:00 am and didn't see him that something was wrong, so I called his cell and when I didn't get an answer I called the police" William answered.

"Thank you for the information" Rossi said standing up and after shaking hands we left the building and headed towards the station.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds**

_The sound of sirens pierced the quiet surrounding the household. A little boy, not more than 11 years old crawls out of bed and steps into the hallway. He sees his parent's door open as they stepped into the hall. Looking down the hall he notices his brother's door is still closed, apparently the sirens didn't wake him up. Suddenly there was a loud knock on the door. The boy's parents head downstairs and open the door._

"_FBI! Are you the parents of Anthony Kiev?" the booming voice said, showing his badge._

_Curious I stepped out of my room and walked down the stairs to see a tall man standing in the doorway talking to mother and father. _

"_Yes" was the reply the boy's mother gave, she sounded so clam in comparison to the man in the doorway._

"_May we speak with him" the FBI man responded back._

"_What for?" the boy's father asked._

"_He's a suspect in an ongoing case" another FBI member answered, sounding a bit annoyed._

"_Mama?" the little boy asked._

_Mother just gave the little boy a look while she moved out of the doorway, letting the men in._

_Quickly the little boy ran up the stairs and knocked on his brother's door screaming "brother!"_

_When the FBI got upstairs they moved the little boy out of their way. After noticing the door was locked the FBI kicked open the door and seeing a blur leave through the window the older guy said, "he's gone out the window."_

_Seconds later the police are out the front door followed by the little boy who stood at the doorway with his parents who were just hugging each other. A few moments of silence passed before three gunshots were heard. _

_Mother started sobbing and father held her tighter. Within a few minutes one member of the FBI came back. "We're sorry but in the process of trying to apprehend your son we had no choice but to fire upon him." He said trying to look sympathetic. _

_With that news the mother broke down completely, sobbing into her husbands shoulder. _

The man sat up in his bed, looking around the room. That dream. Why must he be tormented with that dream? Does he need to be reminded? Does the universe wish to see him suffer? It's those dreams and memories that drove him to do what he has done. Now he is so close to getting rid of them once and for all and getting revenge for his brother.

_I will have my revenge _the man thought getting up from bed.

Walking out from his room he knew what he needed to do to take his mind off the horrible memory that has become a recurring dream.

Walking outside he headed towards the guesthouse.

Once inside he heard light snoring coming from the man strapped to the table.

_He looks so peaceful _the man thought before grabbing the knife and plunging it through the man's thigh.

Before the man on the table could register what was going on or scream, his captor moved his hand over his mouth.

Silence pervaded for a few moments before the man said "Now Jason, if you think I choose you because your special or that I have something against you I have just one thing to say."

The man smiled and paced around the table. "You're not special, you never are and never will be. You are just another person walking on this earth. You are born, you live and you die. Now you don't know when you're going to die but that's just how the universe works. But since you are simply a part in my plot I can safely tell you that by tomorrow morning, a full 24 hours from now, you will be dead." And with that the man put a gag around Jason's mouth and grabbed the knife again a stabbed him through his other thigh.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds**

**Wow it's been awhile since I last updated… Sorry about that, my muse decided to go on a vacation.**

_Hotch _

As soon as we walked into the police station an older man stepped out of his office and walked over to us.

"Detective Jonathan Reese, you must be from the FBI" the man said.

"Agent Hotchner and this is Agent Jareau," I answered back to the man.

"We set up a room for you like you asked" the detective said leading us around the corner into a well-sized room.

After instructing JJ to start working on setting up a press conference I sat down and started reviewing the files again.

_It's clear from the torture that this man is a sadist, but since all his marks are random and have no specific pattern or meaning, the unsub is not doctor nor does he have any medical training. He is also young, somewhere in his late twenties or early thirties and considering the victimology he is physically fit. He has patience, considering the time it took to figure out when such high volume areas would have little to no visitors around so he could dump the bodies. _I thought as I looked over the various files.

"I set up a press conference for tomorrow evening" JJ said as she entered the room and sat across from me. "Did you figure anything else out?" she asked.

"Unfortunately there's not much to go on." I replied back, still skimming over the files.

After a few minutes JJ picked up a few files that I had already gone through and started looking them over.

About an hour later Prentiss and Morgan showed up and shortly after that Rossi and Reid came.

"Prentiss and Morgan what did you find out?" I asked after everyone was sitting down.

"The couple that found the body claimed to not have seen anything or anyone" Prentiss replied.

"What about you?" I asked looking in the direction of Rossi and Reid.

"The last time anyone saw Jason was around 11:00 pm. His partner at the firm, William Test, said he was supposed to be in at 7:00 am but when he got in at 9:00 and didn't see Jason he called the police." Rossi answered back.

"We don't have much to go on at this point." I started, "however we do know that this man is young and physically fit and he has sadistic tendencies," I said.

"We really don't have much besides a basic profile," Morgan pointed out the obvious.

"We should head back to the apartments, get some rest and clear our heads and come back tomorrow with a fresh start" I said to everyone, even though that was the last thing we wanted to do.

Reluctantly everyone agreed and left the office space leaving the files and me alone in the room. After a few minutes I grabbed the files and headed back to apartments.


End file.
